Parabolic Solar Water Distillation

1
Parabolic Solar Water Distillation
TEAM MEMBERS

• Joel Newmeyer

Mark Branner
Andrew Stonebraker

• Motivation
• About 1 billion people do not have access to
  potable water
• Make use of the most abundant naturally
  replenished energy source
• Parabolic reflective troughs are fundamentally
  simple and effective devices for concentrating
  and collecting solar energy

• Overall Goal
• Efficiently supply at least 2 gallons of potable
  water per day
• Create a product that will be relatively easy to
  establish and operate
• Purify water from any source
• Inexpensive
• Provide clean useful drinking water without
  interfacing with electricity

Determining Distiller Geometry

• 2.5 ft2 base cross section
• 0.75 ft high condensing surface

• System Overview
• Contaminated water enters an absorber tube (Pyrex
  glass cover, copper heat pipe) oriented at the
  focus of a parabolic reflective trough.
• Heated water exits absorber tube and enters
  distiller via spray nozzle to increase surface
  area per droplet to enhance evaporation.
• Remaining hot water pools and distiller then
  allows for further evaporation.
• Vapor is condensed on a cooled condensing surface
  via heat exchanger oriented on the top of the
  distiller
• Heat exchanger uses cool contaminated water flow
  to cool the condensing surface and preheat the
  incoming water
• Condensed potable water drains out of distiller
  via gravity into a collection tube

Distiller Sectional View
Assembly
Front view
Right view
Distiller inlets/outlets
Conclusion

• After a semester of research and calculations, we
  have settled on a final design of a solar still,
  a solar still that will maximize potable water
  production. Some of our future project goals
  include
• Refinement and consistency improvements.
• i.e. getting a constant film flow of water down
  the coned heat transfer surface.
• Spray nozzle at heat exchanger inlet.
• Fabric material or grooves to distribute the
  water over the surface.
• Fabrication and assembly of our design.
• Prototype testing/data acquisition.

Acknowledgements Sponsor Akasha Kaur
Khalsa Advisor Dr. Fletcher Miller Special
Thanks Dr. Kee Moon